Awards

Yusho, Balena Named to Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurant List

Congrats to Yusho and Balena, the two Chicago restaurants to make Bon Appétit’s list of the best new restaurants in America. We called Yusho owner Matthias Merges to congratulate him and he said he had just heard seconds before: “It’s unexpected for us, for sure, we’re just a little neighborhood restaurant in Avondale.” Merges said that he had no idea the honor was coming, though Bon Appétit staffers had dined there and had called to fact-check a piece; since the restaurant was just featured in a travel to Chicago piece, though, he says he “thought that was the extent of it. To get national recognition is huge.” We asked him if he planned to do anything to celebrate and he said “We’re just going to do what we do. We try to be consistent, to have great service, to have a really interesting atmosphere, and we change things on the menu every week— so we’ll keep doing all of that.” He expects it will direct more out of town guests to Yusho, but “we’ve had some great accolades locally, we have customers that we see frequently— every nod is helpful in some way and we’re grateful to have it.” [Bon Appétit]

Yusho, Balena Named to Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurant List